Author/Authors :
Mojdeh, Soheila Department of Nursing - School of Nursing and Midwifery - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran , Sadri, Ali Reza Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran , Nabii, Mohammad Mehdi Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran , Emadian, Hossein Alzahra University Hospital, Tehran, Iran , Rahimi, Mojtaba Department of Anesthesiology - Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract :
BACKGROUND: Today, as many as 1.5 million Americans use ventilators once in a year. .Response to mechanical ventilation
alarms remains to be one of the most challenging tasks facing physicians, nurses or other medical personnel in the
ICU. In the present study we aimed to compare the response times to “vocal alarms” and “visual or audible ones”.
METHODS: In the present study we developed a system to evaluate the “Vocal Alarm” and improve the medical ventilator
“Benet 7200 Alarms” with it. Ventilator generates the alarms when patient has any problem. The time of Activation &
Deactivation is recorded. The survey was done in central ICU for six days, 3 days with vocal alarm, and 3days with
“Beep” alarms and detected Alarm events then recorded seventy-two hours of data for each type of alarms. All of events
information saved in the memory and SPSS was used to determine difference between two types of alarms.
RESULTS: On the average, the duration of the ventilator alarms activation were 33 ± 21 seconds for vocal alarms and
60 ± 46 for audible “Beep” alarms. The response times for vocal alarms were significantly lower (P = 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: The response times for normal “Beep” alarms were longer than vocal alarms.
